Learning from Others

When you’re trying to make improvements to your life in a certain area, it can be difficult to look around and see others who have already achieved what you’re still trying to achieve. If you’re starting a business, you may feel twinges of jealousy or envy pop up when you read about someone who already owns an extremely successful business in the field you’re attempting to break into. Maybe you’re an artist and have yet to sell a painting, whereas other artists you know seem to sell their products by barely lifting a finger! Or maybe you just don’t feel as happy or energetic as you’d like, but it seems like everyone around you always has that extra spring in their step.

Here’s my advice for this: Instead of feeding into your twinges of jealousy or envy (yep, I get ‘em too!), strive to learn as much as you can about how to achieve success from that person who has already achieved success in that area. The individual who is already accomplished in what you're hoping to make happen can serve as a great resource or mentor for you along your path to success! Not to mention, if someone else has already achieved your goal, that’s a great thing for you because that is positive proof that it can be done. Hey, if they can do it, so can you!

If the person has written a book, read it! If the person lives in your area, ask to grab coffee with them and pick their brain about how they achieved their results. Don’t worry, they will be extremely flattered if you tell them why you want to meet with them. If the person is a good friend of yours, then you have no excuses not to learn from them! Even just spending time with them and observing how they treat others or how they get things done on their to-do list can teach you a lot about success. Say you have a friend who is great with relationships and you’re only so-so. The next time you hang out with your friend and her spouse, notice how she treats her spouse and see if it’s any different than the way you treat potential suitors.

My point is, it can be easy to get frustrated when you’ve hit a roadblock or two and you see others around you who seem to be sailing through their goals with flying colors. Rather than feeling despair, however, a more productive thing to do is figure out what makes the other person successful and implement those techniques in your own life. This keeps you in action (learning and implementing new strategies) rather than staying stuck and feeling sorry for yourself, which is a much lower vibration. Remember, your external world cannot change until your internal world does. Therefore, if you are carrying around thoughts and feelings of, “Poor me, I will never get anywhere…”, that is exactly what will keep happening in your life! To shift this to a more positive vibration, focus instead on the fact that someone else has succeeded and therefore, so can you. And your first step to success is observing how they have created their own success and seeing if you can replicate any of that yourself.

This is one reason why I love attending personal growth seminars put on by others who have already achieved what I’m trying to achieve. By observing how they carry themselves, how they interact with others, how they conduct their business, etc., I get a lot of great insight into how I can create similar results to them. Even if you can’t attend a seminar, visit that person’s website or sign up for their monthly newsletter to see if you can get any insights into how they have created their results. You don’t even have to replicate what they do, but just open yourself up to some of the possibilities that are out there.

I recently met someone who has achieved several of the goals that are on my vision board and I felt myself starting to get down on myself for not having already achieved the same results. Then I realized what an amazing resource this person could be for me in realizing my dreams, and I started asking her a ton of questions and arranging to be around her as much as I could. I encourage you to try the same technique in your own life and watch as your results start to soar overnight!! :-)

Create A Vision Statement

Most of you have probably heard of creating a vision statement or mission statement for businesses, but how many of you have ever thought of creating a vision statement for your life? Let’s explore this a little further!

A vision statement is basically a statement that describes an ideal outcome, whether it’s for your business, your organization, your family, or your life! A vision statement answers the question, “What direction am I (are we) headed in?” and serves to inspire you and motivate you to achieve that vision. Traditionally they are used in the professional world, but today I’d like to encourage you to create a vision statement for your life… and live from that as often as possible.

In order to create a vision statement for your life, you’ll want to first check in with yourself and figure out what your top values are, i.e. the most important things to you in life. Do you value success in the corporate world, commitment to family, or a combination of the two? Do you value adventure and excitement, or peace and tranquility? Do you value relationships, your independence, or a balance of the two? Take some time to really discover what you value and want out of life.

Once you’ve decided upon your values (pick 3-5 that really resonate with you), you can begin incorporating them into your personal vision statement. Construct your vision statement in the present tense, and really capture the essence of what you want your ideal life to look like. You can use a few sentences (it doesn’t have to be just one), and use emotion wherever you can to really get your senses involved in your vision. Remember, your vision statement is supposed to inspire you and propel you forward to creating your ideal life, so make it extra juicy!

A few months back I did this exercise and came up with the following vision statement: “I am so ecstatic to be consciously creating my ideal life on a daily basis and making all of my dreams come true. I am committed to creating the financial abundance I require to live the life of my dreams, travel the world, and express myself in all ways possible. I am 100% committed to personal growth and becoming the best possible version of myself. Above all, I am committed to loving myself exactly as I am, through thick and thin, and loving and supporting others to become all that they can be and create their ideal lives.“

From my vision statement above, you can tell that my main values are self-expression, personal growth, living my ideal life and making all of my dreams come true, enabling others to create their ideal lives, financial abundance, and travel. Read your statement over a few times to make sure it really captures and represents what you’re striving to achieve in life!

Once you’ve created your vision statement and are satisfied with it, display it in various places that you will see often. This way you will be constantly reminded of what your ideal life looks like, so you will focus on it and go after it! Put copies of your vision statement up on your refrigerator, on your computer, in your wallet, on the mirror in your bathroom, etc., wherever you will see it often. You can handwrite it or type it, whatever you think will capture your attention the most. Feel free to get creative with it as well, and use various colors and designs when displaying it.

Having your personal vision statement and thinking about it often can be helpful in motivating you to achieve your dreams, but can also keep you focused when things are not going exactly as planned. Say you value creativity and expressing creative aspects of yourself, but right now you are working a corporate job that doesn’t allow you to express those sides of you. Don’t fret! You can still express creativity in your life, both at work or at home. At work, you can write in your journal on your lunch break or be creative in the way you decorate your office. If that’s not cutting it, be sure to devote lots of time outside of work to expressing your creativity. Take a painting class, start a blog, or write a novel! The point is, even if your dream is to be in a profession that fully supports your creative urges, you can still express those urges now while you are waiting for your ideal vision to manifest.

Take a few minutes today to create a personal vision statement for your life, and set an intention that you are going to make all of your wildest dreams come true!

Lighten Up!

Sometimes we just take life way too darn seriously. We think that we have to get everything done on our to-do list TODAY, and that we should have achieved all of our goals yesterday. Taxes are due in a few days, the house needs cleaned, the laundry is piling up, you haven’t worked out in awhile, etc. So much to do, so little time!

If you’re familiar with the law of attraction then you know that sometimes stressing yourself out to check everything off your to-do list and leaving little time for fun actually works against you in creating your ideal life. The law of attraction states that the key to creating things in life is not only thinking thoughts that are in alignment with what you wish to create, but also finding those things that make you feel good and doing more of that. It sounds counter-intuitive in our society that values action, action, and more action, but sometimes the best thing you can do is just goof off a little, take a nap, or watch a good movie!

So today I want to remind (and myself) to lighten up! Here are some suggestions:

- Take a stroll around your neighborhood and notice all the blooming flowers
- Go to Starbucks and enjoy your coffee and newspaper there, rather than rushing straight home
- Paint some Easter Eggs or go on an Easter Egg hunt - hey, adults can do this too!! (and no, they don't have to be as intricate as the ones above)
- Go to www.cafepress.com and create your own fun, personalized t-shirts!
- Watch a really good movie
- Read a steamy romance novel
- Read a gossip celebrity magazine
- Create a vision board and really let your imagination run wild!
- Take a much-needed nap
- Do a paint-by-numbers painting
- Take your dog for an extra long walk; if you don’t have a dog, ask to borrow a friend’s!

Those are just a few examples, but you get the point. There are so many fun, inexpensive things to do that many of us never even think about. We are so focused on getting all of our “tasks” done, that we forget that life is meant to be FUN!!! Remember, life is all about the journey, not the destination! :-)

If you take time today to lighten up and infuse your life with more fun, creativity, and goofing off, not only will you enjoy the ride of life more but you’ll actually end up creating more happiness in your future. Everything you are thinking and feeling today is actually creating what you will think and feel in the future. Remember, positive feelings today = positive feelings in the future!

Releasing Stuck Energy

This past weekend I spent three days at a charming retreat center in upstate New York with the lovely Kimberly Wilson. I was there on a yoga/creativity/spirituality retreat with other “hip tranquil chicks” and I had a fabulous time!

One of the main things I learned over the weekend was the importance of using energy in attaining our desires. I already knew this, but it always helps to be reminded! We did this fascinating exercise Saturday morning, which was a sort of movement meditation called the 5Rhythms by Gabrielle Roth. The 5Rhythms is based on the principle that everything is energy, and moves in waves, patterns and rhythms. Furthermore, by “moving the body, releasing the heart, and freeing the mind, one can connect to the essence of the soul, the source of inspiration in which an individual has unlimited possibility and potential.”

The first few minutes I felt strange doing this exercise in a room full of other people (even though our eyes were closed!), but about halfway through I forgot all about being self-conscious and really let my body move in all the ways it wanted to. By doing this exercise I could literally feel myself unleashing all of the energy that had been stuck or blocked inside of me for years!

Most of us never think about it, but everything in our world is made of energy vibrating at different frequencies, including our bodies. And the way you flow or hold the energy inside of you has a direct impact on the results you create in the world around you. If the energy inside of you is stuck, things won’t be moving in your life either. If your energy is flowing rapidly in a positive way, expect a lot of love and abundance in your life! (For a really great explanation of this, read the latest posting by Jeannette Maw on her Good Vibe Blog, which talks about how horses serve as a great mirror for what is happening in our bodies).

What I learned about myself during the 5Rhythms exercise was that my energy was just plain STUCK! I was feeling blocked inside, because there was all this energy that was trapped and not going anywhere. And this made perfect sense when another of the exercises we did this past weekend showed me that my home environment is one of the few things in my life that is just not working right now. My condo is decorated in a way that really represents who I am, but there is clutter everywhere! Large piles of books, paper, and clothes in every corner of my place. I wish I could be on one of those organizing shows where someone comes and re-organizes everything for you, and voila! But I know that without addressing the internal issues, the clutter would just come back in due time.

And so it is with life. Whatever is happening on the outside, is always a reflection of what’s happening on the inside. If you’re holding angry energy inside, don’t be surprised when angry bosses, friends, and co-workers appear all around you. If you’re holding scattered energy inside, you can expect that you’ll have some evidence of this on the outside, like your husband can never remember where he put the keys! Conversely, happy energy inside = happy results on the outside. Thoughts of abundance on prosperity on the inside = abundance and prosperity on the outside!

I invite you to look inside yourself right now and see what type of energy you are holding. If you don’t understand what I mean by that, just observe what your typical state of being is: happy, sad, angry, stressed, peaceful, joyful, aloof, etc. Is that what typically shows up in your life? Know that if you are not satisfied with the results you are currently experiencing, you can change them by changing your energy inside! It can certainly take time and extra focus to make this shift, but it can happen and it will change what’s happening in your world!

By the way, after getting my energy flowing this past weekend I picked up the phone and hired a personal organizer to de-clutter my place! Once I freed up the blocked, stagnant energy inside of me and got it moving again, the manifestation of that stuck energy (lots of clutter) also became free to start moving again.

If you’re interested in learning more about freeing up stuck energy and releasing resistance in your life, I highly recommend using the Peace Treaty by Rain Fordyce. I listened to a free teleclass on the Peace Treaty a few weeks ago, and noticed results just by listening to the call! Tomorrow night Rain is offering another free teleclass, and I will be on the call to share the positive results I have had from using the Peace Treaty process. The details are: Thursday, April 2nd, 2009 at 5:30pm PDT / 8:30pm EDT. If you would like to sign up for the free call, go to http://coachingwithrain.com/peacetreaty.htm.